


The Exchange Student

by Piano_King



Series: random stuff (bc twice is gay af) [1]
Category: TWICE (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, F/F, Fluff, Why are they so soft???
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-26
Updated: 2021-02-26
Packaged: 2021-03-17 01:40:48
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,316
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29709690
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Piano_King/pseuds/Piano_King
Summary: How amazing can one person be? It’s a question Jihyo asks herself constantly after meeting (or rather, embarrassing herself around) foreign exchange student Myoui Mina, and she’s not sure if she’ll ever find a proper answer.
Relationships: Myoui Mina/Park Jisoo | Jihyo
Series: random stuff (bc twice is gay af) [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2192373
Comments: 4
Kudos: 33





	The Exchange Student

Jihyo hadn’t heard a lot about the exchange student. In her defense, three late assignments, nagging friends, and a teacher who had never heard of the word ‘busy,’ distracted her from snooping.

So, it was here, bleary, tired, half-asleep and grouchy, Jihyo threw her coffee on her desk and pulled out her biology textbook. Her professor droned on and on about the exchange program, and Jihyo was doing her best to not fall asleep (Nayeon shooting her a worried glance) when he announced, “Now, our foreign transfer student, Myoui Mina!” Jihyo claps half-heartedly, glancing up and oh my god -

It’s the prettiest girl she’s ever seen. She waltzes into the room as if dancing on clouds, and Jihyo can’t help but wonder dazedly if she’s in heaven until she blinks a few times and tries to pay attention but all she can think is ‘Wow,’ and before she knows it biology is over, and Nayeon is standing in front of her with a smug grin and Jihyo’s backpack, and they’re heading to lunch.

“Uh,” is all Jihyo can say, and Nayeon laughs squeakily at that, saying, “That was the most pathetic pining I’ve ever witnessed-” Jihyo blushes at that, scowling, and retorts, “Oh, almost as bad as the time Jeongyeon was doing a presentation and she caught you literally drooling?” Nayeon glares at her, throughly embarrassed, and Jihyo feels triumphant in having successfully changed the topic.

It’s a few days later before the exchange student (Mina? Such a pretty name) pops up into her head again. How? Jihyo’s walking around the campus in the early morning, enjoying the fresh air and feeling optimistic about her grades. There’s no one else in the library - only nerds get up at four thirty to study - and she’s in a significantly better mood now, caught up with her assignments, and walking to a table when - ah.

Miss Mina’s sitting in Jihyo’s usual seat, and she pauses again, staring. She’s caught in a trance of some sort, admiring the way Mina seems completely focused on her studies, yet still takes time to brush a strand of hair back. Snapping herself out of it, she’s sure some divine entity is laughing at her because for some reason she’s determined to embarrass herself.

Jihyo walks up to the table, a hesitant smile on her face, and asks, “Do you mind if I sit here?” Mina looks up, and Jihyo’s breath hitches in her throat before laughing breathily, because Mina gave her a small gummy smile, and Jihyo thinks maybe in a past life she’s done something that now she’s getting rewarded for, because Mina then says, “Sure.” Moving her books slightly, Jihyo sits down, observing Mina’s neat handwriting.

“Oh, calculus? Do you have Mrs. Kim?” Mina looks up, surprised, but responds, “Yeah. It’s a bit tricky, but nothing too hard.” Her voice is quiet, but soothingly so, and Jihyo’s calmed down enough to ask, “What are you majoring in?” Mina bites the tip of her pen, then puts it down and replies, “Medicine.” As if it wasn’t obvious already, Jihyo notes that Mina must be very smart, which, honestly, she had already guessed as soon as she saw her.

“Well, I’m majoring in finance,” Jihyo says, hoping Mina doesn’t feel annoyed by her chatter. When Mina keeps writing, Jihyo waits a second for her response, and Jihyo gets a, “Oh, I had the feeling you were a loud one.”

\---

“BUT WHAT DOES THAT MEAN!?” Jihyo asks loudly at lunch, and Jeongyeon looks at her pitifully, trying, “I don’t know. . . maybe she wants you to talk quieter?” Jihyo immediately nods, determined, and whispers to Nayeon, “What do you think?” Nayeon looks at her, exasperated, and replies (rather loudly) “Jihyo, it’s simple. Just ask her out.” Jihyo laughs at that, because if there’s one person who had no guts, it was Nayeon. She’d had a crush on Jeongyeon since - well, since forever, honestly, and it was hilarious that Nayeon thought it was SO simple to -

“See, like this. Jeongyeon, will you go out with me?” Jeongyeon doesn’t even glance up, taking a bite of her mashed potatoes and saying, “Sure.” Jihyo promptly chokes on her iced tea.

\---

Soon enough, Jihyo’s caught up in the whirlwind that is college life again, and honestly, she doesn’t think about Mina that much (besides staring at her in every class they were in together. which had caused her english grade to drop to a 91. Shame.) until there’s a project in biology about something she can’t even pronounce. She watches everyone pair up, realizing slowly that Mina isn’t in her seat, and Jihyo nearly jumps out of her own when she hears a soft voice behind her.

“Um, Jihyo? Would you like to be my partner?” Jihyo’s about to respond, ‘YES MARRY ME,’ before she slaps a hand over her mouth. Trying to play the action off, she slides it away nonchalantly, and nods seriously, aggressively saying, “Sure.” She reminds herself that she needs to be quieter, and she whispers again, “SURE.” Trying her best not to cringe at herself, she half expects Mina to leave, but instead she gets another gummy smile, and Jihyo needs another iced tea because she is melting.

They arrange a time after school to work together on the project, (in Jihyo’s dorm room) and Jihyo’s surprised by how smart Mina is - although Jihyo tried her best to add on to Mina’s ideas, she didn’t feel very helpful. However, Mina assured her she was contributing, and after a few hours, they had successfully drafted out the first part of the project.

Glancing at the clock and seeing it was near dinnertime, Jihyo was a bit nervous to ask if Mina wanted to eat dinner together, but she does it anyway (her dignity has been thrown off the nearest balcony, at this point. She had accidentally handed Mina a tacky, stupid, bunny book earlier on accident. Darn you, Nayeon.) and to her surprise, Mina agrees.

Jihyo decides to take her to the nearest barbeque place, since Mina hasn’t been around the area much yet. It’s incredible. In no way is Jihyo exaggerating. She studies Mina as she delicately eats, and they laugh about ridiculous things, and Jihyo learns that Mina’s favorite color is purple, she does ballet, and likes going to the beach. Jihyo makes sure to talk in hushed tones, only stopping when Mina looks at her strangely. “It’s not a bad thing if you’re loud,” she says. “In fact, I think it’s pretty cool.” Jihyo doesn’t think she’s ever been so flustered in her entire life, especially over something so small.

\---

The rest of the months are filled with quiet walks, trips to the park, working on the project, going out to celebrate when they got a 98 (pretty darn good) and doing things Jihyo almost considers - girlfriend things - but she’s quick to remind herself that it’s definitely not. Oh, and her constant pining and staring. Can’t forget about that part.

It’s almost the end of the first semester, (time flies) before Nayeon finally snaps. (If you’re wondering: she had proved her point. Her and Jeongyeon had gone on a date, and within a few weeks they were practically engaged. It was in the most ridiculous, anti-climatic scenario that Jihyo could’ve imagined, but somehow made sense in a way.) “Jihyo, I swear, if every time you see her and you stare at her for two hours, YOU’RE WHIPPED.”

Jihyo glares at her, denying, “Well, it’s not my fault she’s so gorgeous-” Nayeon groans, saying, “SEE? WHIPPED!” Throwing spare clothes around the room, Nayeon aims a dress at Jihyo’s head, muttering, “Now you either ask her out or I promise you I will never give you bunny-themed things again,” she threatens, and Jihyo has half a mind to say that she’s never liked rabbit things anyway, but before she knows it, Jihyo’s discarded on the street with the dress, and she is DEFINITELY, in NO WAY thinking about going to Mina’s dorm.

She’s at Mina’s dorm. Her roommate opens the door, (Sana, she remembers) and smiles at Jihyo (who looks pretty pathetic, Sana thinks), calling for Mina. Mina comes down, and looks at Jihyo with an unreadable expression. “We need to go,” Mina tells her.

Mina pulls her out into the street, the sunset illuminating the city in a blurry purple hue. Jihyo starts, “Yes, we do, in fact, so listen, how would you feel if like, okay, so if hypothetically I were to, somehow ask you ou-” she’s interrupted by Mina saying, “I’m leaving.”

It’s like she can’t breathe, and Jihyo nods. She should’ve known Mina would only want to be friends, this was stupid, this was a mistake - she’s interuptted, again, by Mina elaborating, “I’m going back to Japan.” 

If she couldn’t breathe before this is drowning, or perhaps someone’s set her on fire, because her entire body goes numb and she can’t really see anything besides Mina’s heartbreakingly beautiful face, and the lamppost behind them, and she’s dizzy, the kind where she feels like she’s about to throw up, her only brain cell left giving Mina a nod. “When?” she asks hoarsely, and Mina replies, “Tomorrow.”

The world is made of glass, she decides, because right then everything shatters and all she can feel a thousand shards of broken dreams landing at her feet, twisting themselves into her heart, and Jihyo doesn’t have it in her to look at Mina right now, because they’re just friends, so why does it feel like she’s lost something more?

\---

She goes back to the dorm late that night. She can’t recall exactly what happened after that, but she remembers a lot of sitting at the sidewalk, staring at the disappearing sun. Nayeon and Jeongyeon are laughing about something, the rooms filled with the warm smell of freshly baked cookies, but all she can think about is a certain gummy smile that she’s, very realistically, never going to see again.

Nayeon comes over to her, saying, “So? When’s the marriage?” and all Jihyo can do in response is hang up her coat dully. “She’s going back to Japan.”

Nayeon shrugs, saying again,“Okay, cool. When’s the marriage?” 

And suddenly Jihyo shoves Nayeon back, yelling, “Don’t you understand?! I’m never going to see her again, nothing’s going to happen! There’s no way!” Nayeon doesn’t understand, she thinks angrily. No one understands. And it makes her nearly lose her mind, the way Nayeon ignores and throws the fact (the fact Mina’s leaving, because she’s a foreign exchange student, how could Jihyo have forgotten) away like it’s useless. 

Jeongyeon’s here now, and she tilts her head, having overheard the conversation. “When’s she leaving?” Jihyo sighs in relief, thinking, ‘finally someone has an IQ of higher than negative five,’ and she replies, “Tomorrow. She’s taking a train to the capital first.” Jeongyeon rubs Nayeon’s back, trying to de-escalate the situation. “The station around here? The one in the countryside, right?” Jihyo nods, just wanting to go to sleep and pretend she’s not heartbroken.

Jeongyeon sighs, as if trying to explain something to a kindergartener, and says, “Mina’s train leaves at 6.”

“I KNOW, Jeongyeon.”

“It’s 11 pm now,” Jeongyeon says, waiting for a nod.  
After she gets one, she says, “That’s how many hours until 6?”

Jihyo blinks aggresively, answering, “7.”

Jeongyeon gives a mischievous grin, and suddenly Jihyo is confused where this is going.

“How many hours in the car to drive to the station?”

Jihyo sighs, annoyed, and replies, “3.”

It hits her like a truck, what Jeongyeon’s implying, and she quickly says, “No, no no.”

\---

Jihyo’s wrong. It doesn’t take three hours. Only two and a half. Probably due to the fact that they left at two thirty in the morning, and no one else was on the road. Probably also due to the fact that Nayeon went 10mph faster than the speed limit, resulting in Jihyo clutching her seat belt, fearing for her life.

During the car ride, Jihyo had time to reflect on the situation. She thinks about Mina’s gummy smile, her penguin waddle, and everything that made Jihyo’s heart seemingly stop and yet make it go to 150bpm each time she sees her, and she’s not sure of what will happen after this. She doesn’t know what Mina will do or say. The only factor that is unchanging is the lengths Jihyo will go to for her, and she hopes Mina can understand that.

It’s five when they get there, hints of the approaching dawn present. There’s a morning dew that covers the countryside grass, making a soft palette of faded orange. 

The car hasn’t stopped but Jihyo’s already out, running through the train station. There’s a pounding in her ears, along with creaking wooden boards, and an angry train station worker, and of course, her friends already yards behind her.

Through her mind, it’s a chorus of Mina, Mina, Mina, and Jihyo finally sees her standing by herself, red scarf wrapped around her elegantly, and she drowns in the sight before sprinting again, finally next to her, and Jihyo catches her hand, saying, “Mina!”

Mina’s eyes widen, and Jihyo feels an inner calm now, the rest of the world blurring out as if they’re the only people there. Jihyo knew this could be painful. Mina might go to live in Japan. She might forget about her. Or she could reject her. All of those things would hurt, but Jihyo was too much of a dreamer for the other option - where Mina was the one that got away, the one she never confessed to, that would be too damn painful.

“Mina, I. . . I really like you.” Mina’s cheeks were flushed, and her brown bangs were swept to the side, and for the millionth time Jihyo was staring, she knew. Finally, Jihyo breathes out, “Will you go out with me?” she scanned Mina’s eyes, chasing something she wasn’t supposed to.

And then Mina lit up, giving the softest smile Jihyo had ever seen, and although she hadn’t replied yet, Jihyo laughed in relief and appreciation, and Mina giggled back. She stepped closer, pressing a chaste kiss on Jihyo’s cheek, smiling lazily. “I’d love that.”

Empty promises, Jihyo knows. It’s likely that Mina thinks this is sweet and in a few months will have completely forgotten about her back in Japan, maybe even date someone that’s actually in the same country as her. 

Still, Jihyo waved Mina off, and though the future loomed over them like a storm cloud, she couldn’t help but feel the brightest hope she had felt in a long time.

A dozen yards away. . .  
Nayeon and Jeongyeon greeted Mina’s roommates, Sana and Momo, and they waved back. After getting closer, Sana whispered, asking, “What’s going on?” Nayeon answered, saying, “So, Jihyo’s confessing,” and Momo muttered, “Oh, finally!” while Nayeon continued, “Because Mina’s moving away to Japan. Jihyo didn’t want to at first, because she might not see Mina again, but I convinced her.”

Sana and Momo exchanged an equally confused look before what had happened finally made sense. Bursting out into uncontrollable laughter, Sana and Momo practically fell on the floor, trying to stop their giggling, but they couldn’t. “What?” Nayeon asked, perplexed. Sana whispered something to the two, and soon afterwards, after Nayone and Jeongyeon understood the situation, the four were all howling hysterically.

\---

A week later. . .  
Jihyo went back to her normal routine, school and managing her life. Everything seemed duller without Mina around, but when they called, Jihyo wouldn’t stop smiling for the next hour. She was just finishing baking the pie they were going to eat, and was holding it. Nayeon and Jeongyeon were both at the dorm, and there was a knock at the door.

Raising her phone, Nayeon called, “Ey, Jihyo, could you get that?” Jihyo rolled her eyes. Nayeon was sitting closer to the door than her, but she obliged, still holding the blueberry pie. Walking towards the door, muttering under her breath, “Lazy Nabongs,” before she opened the door and dropped the pie.

“Hi Jihyo!” Mina greeted, and Jihyo gaped at her. Her first thought was a five hundred word essay about how pretty Mina was, her second thought was, ‘Ah, I must have overslept and dreamt this up,’ her third one was, ‘Or maybe I’ve really died and this is heaven,’ and her fourth thought, as Mina pulled her into a hug, was SHE WAS ACTUALLY HERE.

Jihyo, much to her embarrassment, started to cry. Mina pulled back, concerned, inquiring, “Jihyo?” Wiping her tears away angrily, Jihyo grabbed Mina’s hands again, pulling her closer. Mina got the hint and leaned forward, smiling lightly. She lifted a hand to tangle in Jihyo’s hair, before kissing Jihyo properly, on the lips.

Jihyo’s mind, previously in overdrive, all of a sudden shut down, the only thing she was capable of was how soft Mina’s lips were, and how nice they tasted, and then, too quickly, Mina pulled away, grinning up at her, her hands somehow making their way behind Jihyo’s back.

“Surprise!” Mina called, laughing lightly, and Jihyo had no idea what was happening, but she loved hugging Mina, and Mina was right here, so honestly what else did she need to know? So she laughed along, and the feeling was wonderful.

\---

A week ago, at the train station. . .  
Sana whispered, “Mina’s just going for a short visit,” and after a second Nayeon and Jeongyeon cackled at that, all of them unable to resist the hilarious situation. Momo put a finger to her mouth, signaling that Nayeon and Jeongyeon shouldn’t talk about it, so they nodded seriously before going back to laughing.

\---

Jihyo finally looked up, seeing Sana and Momo in the hallway laughing their heads off, and she could hear Nayeon’s loud laughter behind her, and she groaned when she realized Nayeon had caught the whole ordeal on camera. “What is going on?!” Jihyo finally asked, frustrated. The three ignored her, thinking this was the funniest thing that had ever happened in the history of humanity.

Jeongyeon took pity on Jihyo, and with a laugh, responded, “Why don’t you ask Mina?” Jihyo turned to Mina, who said with a sheepish grin, “I was only making a trip there for a week. My parents bought a new house and wanted me to visit,” she said. Jihyo’s jaw dropped in a combination of many emotions, most negative.

After everyone continued to laugh at her for a solid minute, Jihyo finally asked Mina, “And you didn’t tell me that?!” Mina giggled, replying, “Sorry, Jihyo. It was funny.” Jihyo was still mad, but she gave Mina another hug to make sure she knew that Jihyo wasn’t mad at her.

Instead, she turned to Sana and Momo, who had been to her apartment nearly every day since Mina had left. “What about you two?!” she asked with a glare.

Sana, tears in her eyes from laughing, gave, “Well, it was so cute! I couldn’t bring myself to!” Exasperated, she turned to her own roommates, saying, “AND YOU TWO?!”  
Nayeon shrugged, saying, “Sana and Momo wanted to videotape you when Mina came back, so,” Jihyo didn’t miss the way Nayeon grinned triumphantly, (stupid rabbit mc rail was going to get it later) and instead grabbed Mina’s hand, huffing, “Let’s go.” She was done with all of their friend group’s stupid antics.

Their laughter fades away, and Jihyo and Mina are outside in the street now, holding hands, and Jihyo knows she has a dorky grin on her face, but she can’t help it when Mina’s right here next to her. 

“Where are we going?” Mina asks. Jihyo grins up at her, humming, “Well, if I recall correctly, someone promised me a date, didn’t they?” Mina giggles and nods, and, call her sentimental, but Jihyo was pretty sure this was going to be the best first date she’d ever have.

Fin.

**Author's Note:**

> Hey guys, hope u liked the story, it’s for @myzkhr on tumblr bc Mihyo’s her favorite ship! leave a comment & kudos if u enjoyed :D


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